Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said Iran will present a comprehensive peace plan for Syria at the upcoming NAM Summit in Tehran.
Speaking in a press conference on Saturday he added that consultations will be held with countries which are in consensus with Iran on the issue.
He further said the participants at the 16th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Tehran will visit Iran’s nuclear sites on the sidelines of the meeting, noting that the Natanz nuclear facility will be one of the sites scheduled for the visits.
Mehmanparast said 120 NAM member states will attend the Tehran Summit at various levels. “50 countries will participate in the highest level including 27 presidents, 2 kings, 7 prime ministers, 9 vice presidents, 2 parliament speakers and 5 presidential special envoys.”
He noted that the summit will kick off in Tehran on Sunday, August 26 and will run until August 31.
The spokesman stated that Syria will be represented at the meeting by the foreign minister and another official of higher ranks. “A representative from Russia’s foreign ministry will also take part in the summit.”

The 16th summit of the NAM member states will be held in the Iranian capital from August 26 to 31, during which the Islamic Republic will assume the rotating presidency of the movement for three years.

The Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei will address the summit.

NAM, an international organization with 120 member states and 21 observer countries, is considered to be not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc.

NAM's purpose, as stated in the Havana Declaration of 1979, is to ensure “the national independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity, and security of non-aligned countries.”

German FM backs UN chief's visit Iran on NAM amid US pressure

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle on Thursday expressed strong support for

the decision of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to attend a Non-Aligned Movement

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Kim Jung Eun is the North Korean President of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly and meanwhile the Ceremonial Affairs Leader of the country, since the late founder of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Kim Il Sung is officially introduced as the eternal president of the DPRK, and his grandson, Kim-Il Sung is today the Supreme Leader of the DPRK.

The official DPRK news agency KCNA, reporting the news early Thursday morning reported that the Ceremonial Head of the country and President of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly Kim Jung Eun will attend the 16th Tehran NAM Summit as a sign of DPRK’s good will and in response to the IRI President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s kind invitation.

Democratic Republic of Korea and Islamic Republic of Iran are both under international sanctions due to their governments’ nuclear programs and both seriously at odds with the United States.

The KCNA also reported that an Iranian delegation visited the DPRK in July, 2012, for political negotiations and consultations on international developments, at the end of whose visit the two sides adopted a shared stand against the western imperialism and its hegemonic approach.

A report that suggested North Korean dictator Kim Jong Eun might travel to Iran lit up the North Korea watch-o-sphere Wednesday.

But it appeared to be a misunderstanding over the role of Kim Yong Nam, the powerful man who has the biggest title in the North’s government and is the second strong man next to the leader from the family of Kim-Il Sung.

The German news agency DPA, citing an Iranian news website Tabnak, got the report going around the word that Kim Jong Eun would be attending the Non-Aligned Movement summit next week in Tehran.

North Korea routinely sends Kim Yong Nam, the 84-year-old president of the Supreme People’s Assembly Presidium, overseas to meet important people.

He went to the last Non-Aligned Movement Summit, which was in Egypt in 2009, and he traveled to Laos and Vietnam earlier this month.

South Korea’s embassy in Tehran, Yonhap reported, learned late Wednesday that Iranian officials said Kim Jong Eun was not going to be at next week’s summit.

On Thursday morning, North Korea’s news agency announced Kim Yong Nam would go to Tehran to take part in the summit and “pay an official goodwill visit.”

That’s a break with KCNA’s usual practice of waiting to announce the travels of its leaders until they’ve arrived at their destination. For years, it wouldn’t say anything about Kim Jong-Il’s overseas trips until he had returned back home — even when those trips were widely reported by media outside the country. KCNA last year broke with that practice when Kim went to Russia.

By revealing that Kim was out of the country, KCNA found a new story to tell, as embodied in this dispatch from August 22nd, 2011: Officials in various fields and servicepersons of the DPRK are greatly excited to hear the news of leader Kim Jong-Il’s visit to Siberia and the Far East region of the Russian Federation and filled with boundless longing and reverence for him.

Lebanese President Suleiman to attend NAM summit in Tehran

Lebanese President Michel Suleiman will participate in the 16th summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), which is slated to be held in the Iranian capital of Tehran in late August.

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - The Lebanese president will pay a visit to Iran on August 29 at the head of a delegation including Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour.

During his stay in Tehran, Suleiman is also scheduled to hold talks with senior Iranian officials including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Iran's First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi extended Ahmadinejad’s invitation to his Lebanese counterpart in May to take part in the NAM summit in Tehran.

The 16th summit of the NAM member states will be held on August 26-31 in the Iranian capital during which the Islamic Republic will assume the rotating presidency of the movement for three years.

NAM, an international organization with 120 member states and 21 observer countries, is considered as not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc.

On Wednesday, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said the United Nation Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will attend the upcoming summit of the movement despite pressures from the US and Israel.

NAM summit shows plots against Iran have failed

Tehran will host next week the XVI summit of the Non-Aligned Movement, a gathering which will bring together more than 100 countries.

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - The summit is extremely important as the West claims Iran has faced international isolation over its nuclear program which Tehran insists is purely for peaceful purposes.

Ebrahim Azizi, the presidential aide, says the NAM summit shows that the “global arrogance’s plots against our country have been futile”.

Azizi told us that “the satanic plots”, which had been engineered by the Zionist regime of Israel and arrogant powers, could not last long.

“At a time that Westerners have intensified sanctions against our country one of the most important and greatest conferences” will be held in Iran as a key country in the Islamic world, he noted.

Iraqi envoy: NAM summit, chance to resolve regional, global issues

Iraqi Ambassador to Tehran Mohammed Majeed al-Sheikh says the forthcoming summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in Tehran will be a “golden opportunity” to resolve regional and international issues.

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Iraqi Ambassador to Tehran Mohammed Majeed al-Sheikh says the forthcoming summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in Tehran will be a “golden opportunity” to resolve regional and international issues.“The Tehran summit can be a center for dialogue among countries to settle the issues in the region by regional nations and governments,” al-Sheikh told IRNA on Saturday.The Iraqi ambassador, whose country will attend the NAM summit at the highest level, added that the region is currently faced with many developments, including the Palestinian issue, stressing the meeting should focus on ways to restore rights of the oppressed Palestinians.Nations are currently awakened and aware of their demands and rights. The 16th NAM summit can play a determining role in further promoting awakening among nations, he pointed out.He cited the existence of nuclear weapons in certain regions as a clear example of discrimination in the world and called on participants at the NAM summit in Tehran to express their resolve to eliminate such weapons across the globe.The 16th summit of the NAM member states will be held in the Iranian capital August 26-31.NAM, an international organization with 120 member states and 21 observer countries, is considered as not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc.The heads of 35 NAM member states are scheduled to attend the Tehran summit and more than 100 countries have so far expressed their readiness to participate in the meeting.

The managing director of Bank-e-Sepah pointed to great economic powers among NAM member states, and said: "regarding the high population in some of the member states and existence of the related consumption market, there is a proper ground to establish a joint bank and to increase gross domestic product (GDP). Establishing this bank will lead to lower shares for the US and the West in the global economy.”

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - "Although NAM has been established a long time ago, and is counted as the second great organization after the UN in the world, the members of the movement have not embarked on establishing a joint bank ", said Ramin Pashaei Fam, a member of the economic working group for NAM summit, and the offering agent of the joint bank initiation.He added:"the present share of NAM from global GDP comprises less than 15 percent. Establishing the mentioned bank, shall practically increase member states’ quota in the global GDP which, of course, causes a reduction of quota for countries like America. This might bring about oppositions, threats, and problems by those countries."He continued: "In economics, production is a subordinate to investment and human resources. To have production increased; the ratio of investment to working resources must be rational. Although NAM member states have enough working resources, they are in short of the required fund". The managing director of Bank-e- Sepah also quoted:" it is through establishing a joint bank and a monetary unit among the members of the movement that can bring about investment and production."Pashaei said: “there are great economic powers among NAM member states. With regard to high population in some of the member countries as well as the existing consumption market, there is a great opportunity to establish a bank and to increase the gross domestic product. This would decrease America and West’s share of the world economy.Mentioning that NAM bank can equip countries’ resources, he added: “despite the high potentials of NAM member states, these countries are in short supply of financial resources for development; so as to decrease their gap with developed countries.”Explaining that many of the world’s great counties started developing themselves by means of huge bank loans, Pashaei reiterated: “establishing the NAM bank - as a currency-creating, policy-making and money-regulating bank to which agent and trade banks may also join - can lead to the development of these countries”.He said: “if establishing this bank increases the gross domestic products of NAM member states, the level of world production and buying capability of NAM member states would increase as a result. The realization of this event is followed by development of member states and solution of economic crisis of developed countries that are in search of customers for their products.”The managing director of Bank-e-Sepah expressed his hopes that the idea of establishing this bank be approved in the upcoming NAM summit in Iran.

Currency Reservations of NAM Members, $500B More than US, Europe

Currency and gold reservations of countries are two of the most important economic supplies that show a countries’ economic power. Countries count on gold and currency supplies as the backbone of economy, although it is considered less likely these days; NAM news agency reported.

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Currency and gold reservations of countries are two of the most important economic supplies that show a countries’ economic power. Countries count on gold and currency supplies as the backbone of economy, although it is considered less likely these days; NAM news agency reported.In an analysis of international statistics of gold and currency reservation, we would realize that Asian countries own most of the currency reservations of the world; with china as the top, owning 3236 billion dollar worth reservation of gold and currency.NAM summit is being held in Tehran in a time when we made a comparison, on the basis of currency supplies, between currency and gold reservations of NAM members with US and Europe in order to evaluate their economic powers.NAM member states’ gold and currency supplies are worth more than 2850 billion dollars, comprising more than 25 percent of world’s currency supply. If we do not take china’s 3236 billion dollar worth currency supplies into account, the currency supply of NAM members comprise more than 35 percent of world’s reservations.Currency supply of US and Europe is worth about 2350 billion dollars which is 500 billion dollars less than that of NAM members.Based on this report, the currency reservations of European union and America is worth 1800 billion dollars approximately, which is more than a thousand billion dollars less than NAM reservations.

Can NAM summit bridge Iran-Egypt gap?

It is also widely believed that Qatar helped finance the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt

during elections. In addition, Qatari investments in Egypt grew by 74% according to

figures released by the Egyptian Central Bank in July 2012. On August 11, Emir Al-Thani

and a Qatari delegation also travelled to Egypt for a one-day visit with Morsi...

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Diplomatic circles are looking at Egypt on the eve of the NAM summit. Before it was announced that Morsi would go to Iran, it was expected that Egyptian Vice-President Mahmoud Mekki would represent Egypt at the NAM summit as a demonstration of Egypt’s estrangement from Iran.

Cairo’s relationship with Tehran and what develops from Morsi’s trip to Iran is what all Arabdom, Israel, and the US will be watching carefully.

Some analysts are asserting that Egypt’s stance could “make or break” the project to isolate Iran, especially in sectarian terms involving a Shiite-Sunni divide. This is actually wrong, because there is nothing specifically significant that Egypt can do to break or isolate Iran. After all, Cairo and Tehran have essentially had no ties since 1980 and Mubarak was a staunch ally of the US who put Egypt to work with Saudi Arabia and Israel to curve Iranian influence.

In the worst case scenario the relationship between the two countries will stay as it was during the Mubarak era. This is not a losing situation for Iran, albeit the situation in Syria has catalyzed the Iranian desire for faster rapprochement. Egyptian-Iranian relations have nowhere to go except upward.

The Tahrir (Liberation) Square protests that dethroned Mubarak and helped bring about the elections that brought the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood into power is part of what Iranian officials call an “Islamic Awakening” in contrast to an “Arab Spring.” Iran did not hide its belief either that Egypt and it could eventually form a new regional axis after dictator-for-life Mubarak was booted out from power. If there is any man that can make the leap from the conception of an Arab Spring to an Islamic Awakening, at least publicly, it is President Morsi through an alliance with Iran.

On August 8, Iran sent Hamid Baqaei to deliver Morsi’s invitation to attend the NAM summit in Tehran. Along the way the international press and pundits gave higher attribution to Baqaei’s governmental rank, because they failed to realize or mention that he was the most senior of eleven junior or assistant vice-presidents and essentially the cabinet minister responsible for the Iranian presidency’s executive affairs.

First Vice-President Mohammed-Reza Rahimi, the former governor of the Iranian province of Kurdistan and himself a former junior vice-president, is Iran’s senior vice-president. Regardless, Baqaei’s visit to Cairo as both a presidential envoy and a close presidential aide was important. Iran could have delivered the invitation letter through its interest section in the Swiss Embassy to Egypt or other diplomatic channels, but made a significant gesture by sending Baqaei directly to Egypt. The move made all the countries conspiring against Iran and Syria very anxious. For these anxious countries the NAM get-together in Tehran will be all about Egypt, Iran, and Syria.

Are Saudi, Qatari, and IMF moves in Egypt tied to the NAM Summit in Tehran?

Both Saudi Arabia and Qatar have offered Egypt their financial aid before Morsi’s visits to Beijing, where he is expected to ask for Chinese help. Aside from the use of Saudi and Qatari aid to shape the way that the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood interacts with Iran, the offers of aid from the petro-despots of Doha and Riyadh are part of the Arab competition over influence in Cairo.

Morsi is widely seen as Qatar’s man and relations between Riyadh and Cairo have been uneasy for some time. The Saudi Embassy in Cairo was even temporarily closed after Egyptian protests against Saudi Arabia flared up. More importantly, the House of Saud opposed Morsi in support of longstanding Mubarak henchman Ahmed Shafik during the Egyptian presidential elections. In addition, the House of Saud has propped up its own political clients inside Egypt against the Muslim Brotherhood. The House of Saud’s Egyptian clients, the Nour Party and the their parliamentary coalition called the Alliance for Egypt (Islamic Bloc), trailed in second place behind the Muslim Brotherhood’s parliamentary coalition, the Democratic Alliance.

Despite the fact that Doha and Riyadh are both serving US interests, the two sheikhdoms have a rivalry with one another. This Qatari-Saudi rivalry picked up again after a brief pause that saw both sides invade the island-kingdom of Bahrain to support the Khalifa regime and to work together against the governments of Libya and Syria.

The Saud and Al-Thani rivalry has seen both sides supporting different armed groups in Libya and competing anti-government forces during the so-called Arab Spring (or Islamic Awakening in Tehran). The elections in Egypt, where Doha and Riyadh supported different sides, just added fuel to Qatari-Saudi fire.

Qatar’s Emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani has made it a point to support the Muslim Brotherhood almost wherever they are as a means of expanding Qatari influence. Just days after the ousting of Mubarak, Qatar’s Al Jazeera showed great foresight when it launched Al Jazeera Mubasher Misr, a news channel dedicated exclusively to Egypt. While Qatar and its media have put their weight behind the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, Saudi Arabia and its media have not.

This has also been the reason that the Saudi-controlled media, like Al Arabiya, has continued to level criticisms against President Morsi even after the elections in Egypt. To alleviate the House of Saud’s tensions with Egypt, Morsi made his first foreign trip as president to Saudi Arabia.

Aside from favorable news coverage, it is also widely believed that Qatar helped finance the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt during elections. In addition, Qatari investments in Egypt grew by 74% according to figures released by the Egyptian Central Bank in July 2012. On August 11, Emir Al-Thani and a Qatari delegation also travelled to Egypt for a one-day visit with Morsi. The next day, on August 12, Morsi politely dismissed or “retired” Field Marshal Tantawi, the head of the Egyptian Armed Forces, and Sami Anan, the Egyptian Armed Forces chief of staff and Tantawi’s number two. After Al-Thani’s visit, rumors also began to circulate in Egypt that the Muslim Brotherhood was planning to lease the Suez Canal to Emir Al-Thani, which was denied by Morsi and his presidential staff.

An outcome of Emir Al-Thani’s Egyptian visit was that it was announced that Qatar gave Cairo two billion dollars (US). In reality, the Qataris only gave Egypt 500 million dollars (US) and said that the remainder will be given in installments, which will start after the NAM summit in Tehran. Does the payment schedule say anything?

The timing of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) visit to Cairo to negotiate a loan on the eve of the NAM summit in Tehran is also suspicious. After a year of uncertainty and begging, Qatar and the IMF have opened their pockets to the Egyptians (although Qatar sent some money earlier). The Libyan Transitional Council government has even offered to pitch in financially, even when its own coffers are in disarray as a result of the NATO war on Libya and the looting of Libya’s treasury and assets by the Atlanticists with the help of US neoliberal economist turned Libyan “minister of oil and finance” Ali Tarhouni. As for the House of Saud everyone understands that their terms for financial aid to Egypt include the continuation of anti-Iranian policies in Cairo.

Everyone will be Watching Morsi in Tehran

Readings on Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood, which govern under the banner of the Freedom and Justice Party, vary. On the one hand the Egyptian government has maintained the closure of the borders with the Palestinians in Gaza. It has also pledged to honor its international treaties, a sly reference to its peace treaty with Israel that seeks to avoid mentioning Israel and prevent a media fuss. On the other hand, Morsi made positive gestures to Tehran at Mecca’s emergency Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit about forming an Ankara-Cairo-Riyadh-Tehran contact group to discuss the Syrian crisis and has said he wants amendments to be made to the Egyptian peace treaty with Israel.

Like most politicians, Morsi has watered-down his election promises. He has had to walk a fine line surrounded by enemies and competitors alike while he has worked to slowly accumulate power. When he was elected there was a delay in announcing the outcome of the Egyptian election. Field Marshal Tantawi and the Egyptian military junta were taking their time to think over on deciding whether to keep Morsi as a president or to impose a new round of martial law while forcibly installing their fellow general Ahmed Shafik as the country’s civilian president.

Morsi is at odds with Egypt’s military commanders who are the longstanding allies of Israel and the US, as well as allies of the House of Saud. Aside from retiring the two most important members of the Egyptian military junta, Morsi has also reversed the Egyptian military’s decisions to subordinate his presidency and amend the post-Mubarak constitution of Egypt. This power play has been widely described as a pre-emptive counter-coup against the Egyptian military junta. Doha may have supported the move to make sure that its Muslim Brotherhood racehorse stays in power, as opposed to the Saudi’s Egyptian military and Nour Party racehorses. Whether the counter-coup was a move made in the context of Qatari-Saudi rivalries or strictly a move to attain political freedom for Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood is a ten million Qatari riyal question.

Looking East Policy Shift in Cairo?

Where Morsi’s foreign policy is going after the NAM conference in Tehran is the other important question. Where he stands will begin to crystallize from the NAM meeting onwards. The fear of rapprochement between Iran and Egypt certainly keeps a lot of people up at night in Riyadh, Tel Aviv, London, and Washington, DC. Everyone is waiting to see what Cairo and Tehran will do and for many the expectations of rapprochement are running high, but the leverage and restrictions that exist over Morsi should not be forgotten either.

Although there is far less fanfare and attention being paid to Morsi’s trip to China, what he does there will also be very important. Some say he plans on slowly shifting Cairo’s foreign policy away from the Atlanticist camp, with Washington as its capital, towards the Eurasianist camp that includes China and Iran. Certainly Chinese foreign aid will reduce Egyptian dependency on the Atlanticists and their Arab petro-monarch partners. What we are dealing with here is an intricate web of multiple relations between different groups who are interacting with one another in different ways and through changing relationships.